Species with specific roosting, foraging or breeding requirements are particularly vulnerable to habitat loss and degradation. For bats, the availability and environmental condition of caves can be a limiting factor. The cave specialist Natalus macrourus (formerly Natalus espiritosantensis) is categorized as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List but as Vulnerable in Brazil, based on a projected population reduction and a decline in its area of occupancy, extent of occurrence and/or quality of habitat. There is a lack of knowledge about the species’ distribution, natural history and ecology, information that is required for conservation. Using new occurrence data and potential distribution modelling we evaluated the distribution of N. macrourus in Brazil, analysed pressures on and threats to the species, and assessed the species’ conservation needs. Natalus macrourus is positively associated with areas with higher probability of cave occurrence and negatively associated with areas of high variation in mean daily temperature and mean annual rainfall. Areas with high environmental suitability for N. macrourus correspond to only 3% of the potential distribution modelled. We estimate that the species has already lost 54% of its natural habitat and that there is < 35% of habitat remaining in areas with high environmental suitability. We calculated that approximately half of the caves in areas with high environmental suitability are < 5 km from mining operations and only 4% of the species’ potential distribution lies within protected areas. Given the strong association of N. macrourus with caves, it is important to protect these habitats, and we recommend that caves where the species is present should receive immediate protection.

The Critically Endangered ploughshare tortoise Astrochelys yniphora, endemic to Madagascar, is one of the rarest tortoises. Despite its protection under Malagasy national law and featuring in Appendix I of CITES, heightened interest from reptile collectors over recent decades has expedited the scale of poaching to critical levels. Illegal traders are now turning to online retail platforms and social media to sell this species. We present data from a 5-month study conducted by TRAFFIC in 2015 of online trade in ploughshare tortoises in Indonesia during 2010–2015. We identified 88 advertisements selling 126 ploughshare tortoises from 49 sellers. Fifty-six percent of the advertisements were located on forums or online retail sites and 43% on social media. Since 2012 advertisements on social media increased steadily, to > 90% in 2015. Seventy-five percent of the advertisements were from sellers based in Indonesia, 74% of which were from Jakarta. Prices were USD 509–47,000. The internet provides Indonesian traders with a means to sell protected wildlife comparatively safely and easily. The abundance of illegally sourced ploughshare tortoises openly on offer in online trade in Indonesia highlights a disregard for the law among Indonesian importers and their exporting counterparts. A re-evaluation by CITES of Indonesia's existing legislation is necessary. Devoid of a sound legal framework and sufficient enforcement to uphold these laws, there is no deterrent for traders of ploughshare tortoises and other non-native, CITES-listed species.

The Pampas cat Leopardus colocolo occurs in a variety of habitats from northern Ecuador to southern Argentina, yet the species has been poorly studied. There is scant information about its northern distribution or about populations in desert and dry forest. We aimed to determine the presence of the Pampas cat in the Sechura Desert and seasonally dry forest of north-western Peru and south-western Ecuador, identify threats to the species, and describe people's perceptions of it. Using 32 camera traps and compiling confirmed and unpublished records, we mapped the species’ distribution and identified 12 new localities, three in the Sechura Desert and nine in the dry forest. The first records of the Pampas cat in the Ecuadorian dry forest are reported from La Ceiba Natural Reserve and Jorupe Reserve; the northernmost record in the dry forest is from Cerros de Amotape National Park, Peru. In 56 semi-structured interviews with local people we found that most of them (76.8%) did not know the species; 61.5% of those who knew the species had a neutral perception and did not think the cat affected their personal activities. Here we update the northern distribution of the Pampas cat, describe threats to the species in arid ecosystems, and highlight the need for further studies to identify other possible threats and mitigation methods.

We assessed losses of livestock to lions Panthera leo and leopards Panthera pardus in the Adiyo and Gimbo districts in Kafa Biosphere Reserve, Ethiopia. We quantified the economic impact, conducted household and group interviews, and explored potential solutions with local people. During 2009–2013 there were 350 and 62 attacks by lions and leopards, respectively. Households that suffered attacks on their livestock lost a mean of USD 287 and USD 310 in 2012 and 2013, respectively. Although lion attacks are more frequent than leopard attacks, our qualitative data indicate that tolerance for the former is higher because lions are more respected in the local culture. We describe how depredation is culturally mitigated and how retaliatory killing is avoided. Given people's tolerance towards them, carnivores may persist in their highland refugium, opening an arena for conservation that is not strictly linked to protected areas or to classical economics.

The 2009–2010 Sierra Leone National Chimpanzee Census Project estimated there was a population of 5,580 chimpanzees Pan troglodytes verus distributed across the country, with > 50% occurring outside protected areas. The census also highlighted the significance of competition between people and chimpanzees for resources in areas dominated by farming activities where wild chimpanzees forage on crops. We selected four study areas in two districts in Sierra Leone with high chimpanzee density in habitats dominated by agriculture, far from any protected areas. Our objectives were to assess farmers’ perceptions of the main challenges to their agricultural yields, and the wildlife involved in crop foraging, and their perceptions of chimpanzees in particular, as well as the main crop protection measures used. We conducted 257 semi-structured interviews with local farmers across the four study areas. We found that (1) farmers reported wild animals as the main challenge to their agricultural practices; (2) most complaints concerned cane rats Thryonomys swinderianus, which targeted almost all crop types, especially rice and cassava; (3) chimpanzees reportedly targeted 21 of the 23 crop types cultivated, but did so less often than cane rats, focusing particularly on oil palm, cassava and domestic fruits; (4) overall, chimpanzees were not among the top three most destructive animals reported; (5) chimpanzees were generally perceived as being more destructive than dangerous and as having declined since before the civil war; and (6) the main crop protection measure employed was fencing interspersed with traps. Our findings show the importance of investigating farmers’ perceptions to inform the development of appropriate conservation strategies aimed at promoting coexistence of people and wildlife in degraded landscapes.

Tun Mustapha Park, in Sabah, Malaysia, was gazetted in May 2016 and is the first multiple-use park in Malaysia where conservation, sustainable resource use and development co-occur within one management framework. We applied a systematic conservation planning tool, Marxan with Zones, and stakeholder consultation to design and revise the draft zoning plan. This process was facilitated by Sabah Parks, a government agency, and WWF-Malaysia, under the guidance of the Tun Mustapha Park steering committee and with support from the University of Queensland. Four conservation and fishing zones, including no-take areas, were developed, each with representation and replication targets for key marine habitats, and a range of socio-economic and community objectives. Here we report on how decision-support tools informed the reserve design process in three planning stages: prioritization, government review, and community consultation. Using marine habitat and species representation as a reporting metric, we describe how the zoning plan changed at each stage of the design process. We found that the changes made to the zoning plan by the government and stakeholders resulted in plans that compromised the achievement of conservation targets because no-take areas were moved away from villages and the coastline, where unique habitats are located. The design process highlights a number of lessons learned for future conservation zoning, which we believe will be useful as many other places embark on similar zoning processes on land and in the sea.